Santa Monica Ca Development And Redevelopment

Santa Monicans, famous for their outspoken and contentious spirits, are applying that volatility to a favorite pastime: shopping for bargains. While most say they love the prices and merchandise of the leviathan Target department store chain, many are not sure they want a 125,000-square-foot branch to open smack-dab in the center of the beach-side community's already congested downtown.

Santa Monica homeowners soon may be asked to take a big step for those who can't walk. In what would be the first such rules in the nation, Santa Monica officials are considering a proposal to require that all privately built new homes and those undergoing major remodeling have a wheelchair ramp entry, wide interior hallways and at least one handicapped-accessible bathroom.

The restaurant item didn't come up until well after midnight, when members of the Santa Monica City Council were talked-out, bleary-eyed and perhaps a bit cranky. Three businessmen behind an effort to bring a new restaurant and bar to the downtown area, just a few steps from the popular Third Street Promenade, were extolling the merits of their new venture--a national chain's first foray into Los Angeles County. All around the council chairs, eyebrows rose.

Santa Monicans, famous for their outspoken and contentious spirits, are applying that volatility to a favorite pastime: shopping for bargains. While most say they love the prices and merchandise of the leviathan Target department store chain, many are not sure they want a 125,000-square-foot branch to open smack-dab in the center of the beach-side community's already congested downtown.

Santa Monica officials are moving forward with a proposed $40-million public safety facility slated to house the city's police, fire and emergency operations. The city has invited the public to comment on the project's possible environmental impact at a "public scoping" meeting at 7 tonight at the Ocean Park Library.

With their biceps-bulging handstands and eye-popping acrobatic flips, generations of buffed and bronzed athletes ruled the sands at Santa Monica's Muscle Beach from 1934 to 1958. Then one night without warning the city flexed its muscle and ripped out the gymnasts' platforms, rings and balancing bars. Never mind that the beach was the place that America's emerging fitness boom was born.

In a move that one City Council member said would make the downtown area resemble a great city of Europe, the City Council has voted unanimously to approve plans aimed at extending the success of the Third Street Promenade to neighboring areas. After years of planning and community meetings, council members recently approved conceptual design plans for an estimated $5-million to $7-million project known as the Downtown Transit Mall.

Winding up one of the most complicated negotiations in city history, the City Council unanimously voted early Thursday to approve a $270-million reconstruction and expansion project for St. John's Health Center. The project, set to begin late next year, would involve piecemeal demolition and rebuilding of the 56-year-old facility, which was heavily damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. St. John's officials have to agree to the city's proposals.

A plan to turn downtown Santa Monica into a Third Street Promenade-like area has received approval from a committee of city and planning officials and is on its way to the City Council for final adoption next month. The $17-million plan calls for widening streets between Lincoln and Ocean boulevards and Wilshire Boulevard and the Santa Monica Freeway, redirecting traffic on one-way streets and widening sidewalks.

A 699-seat restaurant and nightclub proposed for the Santa Monica Pier won the final go-ahead Tuesday after the Santa Monica City Council rejected an appeal by residents and the police officers association that claimed that the eatery would create noise, traffic and public safety problems. In a 4-2 vote, the council approved a redesigned project that took into account some of the concerns raised by the opponents, Citizens for a Safe Santa Monica, and the Santa Monica Police Officers Assn.

The neoclassical Water Garden Phase II office complex in Santa Monica should sell soon for $260 million, according to Westside real estate sources, following bidding on the just-completed project. An investor advised by New York-based banking giant Lazard Freres & Co. is expected to pay around $430 per square foot for the 600,000-square-foot complex in one of the region's most popular office markets. The price suggests a substantial profit for the developers, including J.H. Snyder Co.

The city boasting one of Southern California's hottest office markets is about to adopt a measure that real estate developers predict will dramatically slow the pace of commercial construction. Santa Monica's new guidelines reduce the size of new buildings subject to extensive Planning Commission and public review to 7,500 square feet in most of the city's commercial districts. The old cut-off was 30,000 square feet, already under the Los Angeles standard of 40,000 square feet.

Talk about midlife changes. Over the last 15 years, Montana Avenue in Santa Monica has metamorphosed from a humble neighborhood shopping area into a "glam-chic" boutique zone rivaling some of the commercial streets in Beverly Hills. Montana Avenue's shops between 7th and 17th streets have been featured in Women's Wear Daily. It's not uncommon to spot such Hollywood luminaries as Madonna, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kate Capshaw and Rita Wilson traipsing toward one of its boutiques or cafes.

With their biceps-bulging handstands and eye-popping acrobatic flips, generations of buffed and bronzed athletes ruled the sands at Santa Monica's Muscle Beach from 1934 to 1958. Then one night without warning the city flexed its muscle and ripped out the gymnasts' platforms, rings and balancing bars. Never mind that the beach was the place that America's emerging fitness boom was born.

In a move that one City Council member said would make the downtown area resemble a great city of Europe, the City Council has voted unanimously to approve plans aimed at extending the success of the Third Street Promenade to neighboring areas. After years of planning and community meetings, council members recently approved conceptual design plans for an estimated $5-million to $7-million project known as the Downtown Transit Mall.

It lacks the skyscrapers, stature and the name recognition of Century City or Westwood. In fact, it even lacks a proper name. But the eastern stretch of Santa Monica north of Olympic Boulevard has emerged as ground zero in the development of new office space in the Los Angeles area.

Construction has begun on a $12.5-million oceanfront amusement park on the Santa Monica Pier. The first of almost 200 concrete pilings, each 20 inches in diameter and weighing 20,000 pounds, was driven into the ocean floor Friday to help support the weight of the roller-coaster, Ferris wheel and nine other rides. The two-acre park is scheduled to be completed in May, 1996.

About two dozen Santa Monica residents, merchants and property owners agreed at Tuesday's City Council meeting to support a $4.8-million plan to upgrade Main Street. The plan, which calls for more trees, old-fashioned street lights and a village-like atmosphere, will attract more shoppers and will improve the environment, proponents said. The council is expected to rule on the plan next week.

The restaurant item didn't come up until well after midnight, when members of the Santa Monica City Council were talked-out, bleary-eyed and perhaps a bit cranky. Three businessmen behind an effort to bring a new restaurant and bar to the downtown area, just a few steps from the popular Third Street Promenade, were extolling the merits of their new venture--a national chain's first foray into Los Angeles County. All around the council chairs, eyebrows rose.